Diwali Activities for Kids: 6 Calm Ideas to Do at Home

Tia says:

Diwali is the festival of lights! Let's make some light and colour of our own.Diwali is the festival of lights! Let's make some light and colour of our own.

• 10 to 30 minutes each
• Paint, paper, clay diyas
• Indoors, on a table
• Colour, counting, fine motor

The best Diwali activities for kids are small, hands-on and happy to be interrupted: painting a clay diya, folding a paper lantern, counting little lamps or simply sorting marigold petals. None of them needs a special kit, and each one can be done at a table in one sitting.

Diwali, the festival of lights, is celebrated by Hindu, Jain and Sikh families in different ways, and children often notice the diyas, flowers, sweets and rangoli long before they understand the stories. These six ideas let them join in with their hands. Pick one, or one a day in the week before the festival.

What do you need for Diwali activities at home?

• Plain clay diyas (the small unglazed ones, a few rupees each)
• Poster paint in three or four colours, thin brushes and a cup of water
• Old newspaper to cover the table
• Coloured card or craft paper, safety scissors, a glue stick
• A few marigold petals, buttons or small beads for sorting and counting
• A shallow tray or plate to keep small things together

Painted diyas and marigolds: a simple setting for a child's Diwali table.

Which Diwali activities can children do?

6 calm Diwali activities to try

Tick off each one as you try it. Start with the one your child leans towards.

0 of 6 done

1. 1

   Paint a clay diya

   Cover the table with newspaper and give your child a plain clay diya, three paints and a thin brush. Dots, stripes and zigzags all look lovely on clay. Let it dry for an hour before you set it on a shelf.

2. 2

   Fold a paper lantern

   Fold a sheet of card in half, draw short lines from the folded edge and cut along them with safety scissors, stopping before the top. Open it, curl it into a tube and glue the ends. A grown-up should place any light inside, and a battery tea light is safest.

3. 3

   Count the diyas

   Write the numbers one to five on small pieces of paper and ask your child to place that many buttons, beads or small clay diyas under each number. Count out loud together as you go.

4. 4

   Sort the marigold petals

   Mix orange and yellow petals, or buttons in warm colours, in a tray. Your child sorts them into two bowls, then counts which bowl has more.

5. 5

   Make a colour pattern

   Lay out a row of coloured dots or diya shapes in a pattern such as red, yellow, red, yellow, and ask your child to carry it on. Older children can invent a harder pattern for you to finish.

6. 6

   Tell the story of the lights

   Ask your child why we light diyas and listen to their ideas before you share your family's own Diwali story. Then ask them to draw one thing they remember from the story.

Everything you need to paint diyas: newspaper, plain clay lamps, paint and a brush.

How do you make a paper lantern with kids?

A cut-and-curl lantern is the easiest Diwali craft for a first try. The folded edge acts as a guide, so even beginners get neat slits, and the finished tube stands up on its own. Younger children can do the colouring and gluing while a grown-up cuts, and older children can cut their own and try a second lantern in a different colour.

A folded and cut paper lantern, with the simple tools you need to make one.

What do Diwali activities teach children?

Make Diwali activities easier or harder

More Diwali ideas for the week

If you would like a rangoli to go with these, our chalk rangoli for kids uses dots and simple shapes that small hands can manage, and a chalk design is easy to wash away afterwards.

For a paper follow-up, our Festivals and Cultural Diversity activity book has colouring, craft and puzzle pages about festivals, and the number tracing and counting book is useful for the counting game above.